Five chapters, nine cities: how street journalists and IRL streamers broke the story, and how newsrooms used their footage.

In under two decades, "posting videos" turned into a career path, an ad channel and a boardroom concern. Here are the dates, deals and decisions that built the creator economy, and what they tell brands and creators about the next phase.

It started with free samples and blog posts that often weren't disclosed. Now it is a budget category that ad buyers rank just behind search and social. Here is how the money, the rules and the metrics grew up, and what still hasn't.

The biggest creators are running consumer goods companies and media holding firms, with a YouTube channel attached. The numbers from MrBeast's investor documents, Skims' funding rounds and Prime's sales show why, and where the model breaks.

Our forecasts for the year ahead. Each one is built on data and analyst calls we can point to, and each is clearly labelled as a forecast, with the evidence set out first and our conclusion second.

Ad buyers have adopted AI quickly, creators are cautiously positive, platforms are building both the tools and the guardrails, and audiences are wary. What the data says about how creator work could change over the next few years. All forecasts are labelled.